IIS Blog

The reworking of EB-5 legislation has long been mooted. With these changes now expected to come during the early part of 2018. In addition, the Trump administration’s 3rd attempt at a travel ban is now in place. How will these unfolding events impact investors across the MENA region?

Dr Kristin Surak is an Associate Professor of Politics at SOAS, University of London. She is a Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and a past Richard B. Fisher Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Her research on international migration, nationalism, and political sociology has appeared in leading academic and intellectual journals, and her writings have been translated into a half-dozen languages. In 2014, she received the Book of the Year Award from the American Sociological Association’s Asia Section, and her scholarship has been recognized by the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She comments regularly for the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, and Sky TV News. Dr Kristin Surak’s research into citizenship by investment programs has been fundamental to the understanding of this evolving industry.

A trust is one of the most common vehicles used by high-wealth individuals to hold investments. Reasons include asset protection (separation of legal ownership from the “at risk” individuals), flexibility in distribution of income to beneficiaries in a tax efficient manner and the ability to pass on the benefit of discount on capital gains.

But says Carlyle Rogers of Legal Consultants FZE, “Trusts… must be established properly because of the unique risks involved and increasing scrutiny they are facing by tax and regulatory authorities, especially where the beneficiaries and settlors are domiciled in jurisdictions such as across here in Asia”.